Wednesday July 27, 2016
Early up and on the road! We left Grand Teton and into Yellowstone National Park
to see Old Faithful.
The gift shop lured us in and we all bought something,
including a t-shirt for me and fudge popsicles for the kids. I had forgotten
that Yellowstone charges $3 per Jr. Ranger book, but we did them anyway. The ranger
program was good for all of us because we learned about all the wildlife in the
region, specifically wovles, coyotes, bear, and moose. Pumpkin was very good at
answering the ranger's questions and Chuck Roast yelled out 'Lion!' when the
ranger asked what kind of animals everyone was looking for in the park. The
ranger inside the building got stern with me when Chuck Roast didn't complete 6
full pages of the Jr. Ranger packet and when I reminded him that he's only 4;
'That's why you have to do it with him!' was the rangers response. He let the
kids take the pledge anyway and they got their patches along with the
centennial badges.
We watched Old Faithful blow after Chuck Roast and I spent
some time in the Visitor Center while the rest of the group saved spots outside
for the event. Old Faithful was neat and Chuck Roast liked that the water went
so high while Pumpkin was impressed with how hot the water was, how it got so
hot, and why the water erupted like it did.
One thing we had never seen before
was a hot spring and all its colors. There are some springs by the visitor
center but we asked if there were any more. At Biscuit Basin, there is a
beautiful hot spring just across from Little Firehole River. This is where the
ranger sent us as his favorite hot spring. It was worth the stop. We took a
quick jaunt on the boardwalk to the hot spring and then back at the car, made
sandwiches before heading out.
The drive out of Yellowstone was the longest
trek Ever! Thank goodness we had Lemony Snicket to keep us company because the
line of cars was long and slow and the construction (who does construction at a
National Park in July?!?) took forever with all its 1-lane sections. Once out,
we hopped on the highway and off we went! We drove all the way to Butte, MT
before stopping for the night. Getting service anywhere through Wyoming or
Montana is tough, so once my car buddy got some on her phone, we booked a
hotel. Quality Inn in Butte off of 90 and 15 was nice. The woman at the front
desk didn't know much, but the rooms through Kayak were cheap, the pool was
clean, and the continental breakfast ended up being pretty good. After some
confusion regarding who was sleeping where, we got an extra room and the kids
and I finally had beds to sleep on again. The three of us took a dip in the pool,
where there were not stairs, only a ladder, so Chuck Roast had to swim with me.
This is huge since he's so scared of sinking that he doesn't even want to be
held by someone in water where he can't touch. After swimming together for 30
minutes, he chose to sit on the ladder but found the courage to try and touch
the bottom, which he did, barely! Pumpkin of course practiced swimming all over
the shallow end and clearly loves the water. After some hot tub time for mom,
we showered and then all of us headed to dinner. Huckleberry beer. This is what
life is all about! Wild Huckleberry Wheat by Great Northern Brewing out of
Whitefish, MT was awesome! And it paired nicely with my pulled pork and slaw
sandwich. Dinner was good and the conversation was great. Our plan to have a
couple people do laundry while the rest made a Walmart trip for groceries for
the weekend was a bust when someone chose to use a laundromat in the middle of
a neighborhood instead of the one on the highway so no laundry was done but our
Walmart trip proved fruitful. Back at the hotel, I thought the kids would crash
after such a busy day, but they both piled into my bed and talked and talked
and talked. Finally they fell asleep and I moved to the empty bed.
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